Tuesday, February 01, 2005

There can be many angles with with we can approach the post-tsunami Sri Lanka. There's tourism, housing, environment, infrastructure for the fishing industry, and then there are the orphanages and the impact on the children.

Children. Read this by a reporter Stan Grant, and see if you can ignore them.

Grant was writing in early January about seeing the bodies of three small children recovered from the beach.

From where I stood, I could see that they were children. No more than babies really, aged maybe between 1 to 3. From a distance, it just really didn't look real. They looked almost like mannequins or dolls.

But as we got closer, I saw their arms were locked around each other. They were hanging on to each other.

Their bodies had been tossed in the torrent ... as it came through. Somehow these three little kids had hung together and died together.

He stoppped being a reporter, and realized that he was a father, first:

I remember standing there, looking, and I couldn't help thinking about my own children. I have three little boys of my own. And I know I look in on them sometimes before they are about to go to bed, and they are often lying there and they have their arms around each other.

Looking at these three little children, with their arms around each other, reminded me so much of my own kids. And I started thinking about the little things that matter.

This kind of reporting stopped us in its tracks. Sure this is a CNN reporter, but this is much more than a 'news story.'

Another angle.

Here's another writer with another great story about how religious and ethnic differences suddenly disappear. Jeff Greenwald writes for Ethical Traveller:

While we relax, Dilan (who is from Kandy) tells us that the monk we hope to see — Thibbotuwawe Sri Sumangala — did something rather extraordinary, given the events of 1998. Four days after the tsunami, he and his monks loaded 26 trucks full of food, medicine, and supplies. They drove the trucks due east, and delivered the supplies directly into the hands of the Tamils near Trincomalee.

"It was a way of saying that religion doesn't matter," explains Dilan. "For the past 20 years, Sinhalese and Tamils can't find a chance to talk to each other. With this disaster, there is an opening to communicate — so we give help to them, from the bottom of our hearts."

In response to a post here --based on a request from a relief worker in Trincomalee-- about the need to suply shoes and socks to children returning to schools in affected areas in an East coast city of Sri Lanka, here's a follow up.

The board of the New Era Children's Fund, a Arizona-based organization has transfered $2,000 toward the cause. Also, CEO of NECF, has agreed to privately fund the balance for ths socks. Thank you for such speedy action.

The supplies are being purchased through Ceylon Leather Products, in Colombo 10.

Side note: Other organizations are helping with back-to-school projects. See this BBC article. But let's not forget these other little projects --especially those in the areas that the media don't always visit.

Sunday, January 23, 2005

1. The Center for National Operations (cnosrilanka.org) in Sri Lanka is a powerful database-driven site maintained created by a private group of individuals, and now run by the Presidential Secretariat.

It covers many aspects of disaster operations in the country such as Water and Sanitation, Childcare, Logistics. Even an UN desk, and useful links. See this map of affected areas.

2. MapAction (http://www.mapaction.org) a UK-based international charity that assists in mapping of disaster areas. It uses satellite imagery, GIS and GPS. Want to see affected areas in Hambantota, or Galle? Check here.

Saturday, January 22, 2005

Should it take a calamity to make us empty our pockets and mobilize us into action? 'Honky Tonk Woman,' writing for the Sunday Leader newspaper in Sri Lanka says something most of us feel, but haven't put it into words.

After such a tremendous disaster, you begin to realize the triviality of your problems. I'm very sorry to say it has become a kind of a contest with some folks, who like to make sure everyone knows how and what their contributions were to the relief effort. Let's hope everyone will keep up the the level of enthusiasm over a longer period of time, for this effort has to be continued for a while in order to be successful. The real heroes/ heroines are those who work steadily and silently, they don't even talk about it. They don't feel the need for the whole world to know. I called up one of my oldest friends and told her I was proud to know her, she's one such person. I know she doesn't wait for tsunamis but always helps people and DOES NOT TALK about it.

I spoke to several people over the last few days who have amazing sories out of Sri Lanka, of Sri Lankans helping Sri Lankans all over the country. These private individuals who load their cars and double-cabs and make sorties into affected areas on work days and weekends. They don't receive --and don't care for- media attention. We can't thank them enough

Wednesday, January 19, 2005

These pics are of the city of Hambantota which is now fully bulldozed.You will notice there are more vehicles to be cabled out of the mud andwater. This is a really sad site. The telecom tower has just crumbled down toball of metal.

Friday, January 14, 2005

At Triton Hotel in Beruwala, several employees living in the area had their homes destroyed. These pictures, sent via Amanthi Dias Abeysinghe (whose dad is the General Manager of the hotel) tell their story. We visited Triton, a beautiful, sprawling beach resort, in June 2003, so I know exactly where these stories come from.

Wednesday, January 12, 2005

Lest we forget the truly amazing stories, I encourage you to please post your own here. Or email me here. I have 2 today:

A health club in California RoughFit is planning to collect money for the four families affected along the southwest coast of Sri Lanka.

A Fulbright scholar Jeremy Gantz (from Cape Cod, Mass.) who had been in Sri lanka, is reportedly involved in relief work.

For the past three months he had been studying the history of Sri Lankan education and its connection to colonial and post-colonial political and economic developments! He had been on holiday in Thailand when the tsunami struck and he says “I felt fairly hedonistic on holiday in Thailand after learning of the tsunami… so flew back to Sri Lanka to help with the relief effort; my research feels very unimportant now”.

Monday, January 10, 2005

I have been getting mixed messages from people on visiting hard hit areas in the south and east. One of them --reinforced by some CNN coverage-- is that Sri Lankans are coping well with the recovery and rellief efforts. I think there are different stories, and stories within stories, that the media cannot adequately get out, so before you make up your mind, read this from Ravi Ratnapala, a senior manager at Finlays, Colombo, who writes on a visit to Ampara and Kalmiunai. Rationing of food, shortages, monsoon rains etc make it still a very grim picture --at least as of last Thursday. Here is his story (with my emphasis).

Having left Colombo at 4.00am we reached Ampara at 7.00pm. This after we had problems with one of the vehicles along the way. The same evening we unloaded the supplies consigned to Ampara which did not appear to be badly hit. The next morning with the help of Sarvodaya we reached Kalmunai around 10.00 am. What we saw in Kalmunai was total devastation. The pictures tell the story. I have a movie which is too large to e.mail

In the Ampara District there are about 125 camps and Sarvodaya has taken over about 25 camps. There are supposed to be over 400,000 people in the camps in Ampara Distric alone. We visited a camp giving shelter to about 850 people and also visited the Ampara and Kalmunai Hospitals with medical supplies. The disposable surgical gowns (about 100) which we gave Kalmunai Hospital was most appreciated by them. Surgery at the Kalmunai Hospital has just recommenced. The doctors appealed for water purification tablets as the water in the hospital is contaminated and fresh water supplies are limited. I think this is the same all over in the country and we should get some help from overseas if possible.

The approach road to the Sarvodaya Center in Kalmunai (washed away) was so bad that we had to stop the lorry and carry the supplies into the center. Infact the sea water had come into the Center in Kalmunai

Sarvodaya will be issung a coupon to the people in the camps and they will be given a weekly ration. The next big step is to get them back to the settlements. We left the eastern coast minutes ahead of flood waters as a result of the monsoon rains which had begun in the area.